By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor ZEALnyc, November 7, 2018
At age 87, the curious jazz connoisseur, accomplished classical composer and agriculturist at heart, David Amram stands tall in the wisdom of the arts. Largely underappreciated in jazz circles, he firmly and singularly expresses his passion ...

By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor ZEALnyc, October 9, 2018
In jazz, there is a plethora of guitarists, each with a voice on the six strings that rocks with fire or soothes with pastel colors or embellishes with strokes that support the surrounding conversations. Then there’s the rare guitarist who ...

By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor ZEALnyc, September 11, 2018
In the summer, large-scale spotlight concert events that serve as a multi-cast spectacle are prevalent (most noteworthy from North American outposts like Montreal and Newport), but once Labor Day rolls over, it would seem that jazz might ...

By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor ZEALnyc, November 7, 2018
At age 87, the curious jazz connoisseur, accomplished classical composer and agriculturist at heart, David Amram stands tall in the wisdom of the arts. Largely underappreciated in jazz circles, he firmly and singularly expresses his passion to encourage arts-minded ...

By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor ZEALnyc, October 9, 2018
In jazz, there is a plethora of guitarists, each with a voice on the six strings that rocks with fire or soothes with pastel colors or embellishes with strokes that support the surrounding conversations. Then there’s the ...

By A. E. Colas, Contributing Writer, September 24, 2018
One of the best things about a new season of art shows and exhibitions is that moment when you walk into the room, look around, and say “Wow – this is where I want to be!” If you want ...

By Brian Taylor, Contributing Writer, September 22, 2018
The 2018-2019 season, and a new era for the New York Philharmonic, began with a gala concert at David Geffen Hall on Thursday evening. Entitled "New York, Meet Jaap," Jaap van Zweden made his debut with the orchestra as ...

By Doug Hall, Contributing Writer, September 19, 2018
At first glance, the title of Cerise Jacobs’s upcoming world’s first video game opera PermaDeath seems to imply another dark take or tale using the commercial success and wide-spread popularity of the multiplayer video game phenomenon. But ...

By Sheila Kogan, Contributing Writer, September 18, 2018
The current exhibit at MoMA entitled Judson Dance Theater: The Work is Never Done is an homage to the dance artists who created work at the Judson Church in the 60s and 70s. The dancers and choreographers who created ...

By A. E. Colas, Contributing Writer, September 17, 2018
This week, Art Break is looking at a wide variety of art movements as well as their purpose and meaning. The oldest material on our list comes from The Frick’s exhibition of fifteenth century religious and devotional ...

By Brian Taylor, Contributing Writer, September 14, 2018
If the New York Philharmonic were to program an evening of music by avant-garde Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, I suspect it would be a tough sell. The audience would be limited, and probably dwindle in number as the night ...

By Miles Harter, Contributing Writer, September 14, 2018
Agnes is a compelling play about family, friendship, and connections. Set in a three-bedroom New York City apartment, Agnes presents five millennials sheltering themselves from a major storm.
The talented playwright, Catya McMullen, adeptly sets up the backstory for ...

By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor ZEALnyc, September 4, 2018
After three years ruminating on her next project, the elegant Grammy Awards vocalist winner Luciana Souza has returned with not one, but two recordings—her beautifully reflective album of poetry that she set to music, The Book of Longing ...

By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor ZEALnyc, August 3, 2018
Last year marked the 60th birthday of composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein’s classic Broadway show West Side Story, famously made into a 10 Academy Award-winning movie version in 1961 starring among others the Puerto Rico-born actress Rita ...

By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor ZEALnyc, July 31, 2018
At this summer’s 45th annual Umbria Jazz Festival in the ancient central Italian town of Perugia, the party atmosphere was omnipresent. It was hot in temperature and the songs were broiling. Musically the scene captured a rare meeting of ...

By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor ZEALnyc, July 19, 2018
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the New York-based photographer since 1992 Adriana Mateo not only engages the viewer with her art work but also in the process of capturing her image makes an intimate connection with the artists themselves. ...

By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor, July 18, 2018
Carnegie Hall debuts its National Youth Orchestra Jazz—22 members between the ages of 16-19 from 16 states—on July 27 at Stern Auditorium. What promises to be a rousing concert of teenage jazz spirit will be directed by renowned trumpeter Sean ...

By Doug Hall, Contributing Writer, July 10, 2018
Celebrating its 39th year, the Montréal Jazz Festival has remained true to its mission as stated by president/director general Jacques-André Dupont to offer “a massive festive urban event with a major component of free programming” while also ...

By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor ZEALnyc, July 6, 2018
In the late ‘80s, I was still relatively a jazz rookie after having followed the many veins of rock and pop beforehand. But jazz was always sneaking in during that time until the flood gates opened when I was asked to cover the Chicago Jazz ...

By Doug Hall, Contributing Writer, June 22, 2018
In a recent conversation, André Ménard, co-founder and artistic director of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, gives an overview of the breadth and scale of the outdoor and indoor venues and range of musicians (over 3,000) and concert ...

By David Rubien, Contributing Writer, June 21, 2018
A pillar of the New York improvised music community since the 1970s, bassist-composer William Parker is leading a residency at the Stone June 26-30. He says he will be exploring life in its component terms: vibrations, light, love.
That has been ...

By Denin Koch, Contributing Writer, June 20, 2018
On their 2018 release Introspection on Jazzheads Records, guitarist Roni Ben-Hur and bassist Harvie S succeed in presenting a guitar trio record that captures the timeless tradition of the ensemble while also producing exciting new sounds and ...

By David Rubien, Contributing Writer, June 15, 2018
When a large percentage of jazz guitarists under the age of 50 tell you that their primary influence was Jimi Hendrix, you know something interesting is going on. While the guitar has become as prevalent in jazz as almost any other axe, it is also ...

By Denin Koch, Contributing Writer, June 14, 2018
Guitarist Steve Tibbetts’ long association with ECM has produced nine albums that span influences from Southeast Asian gamelan to Americana to jazz fusion. His 2018 release, Life of, is a quiet, meditative record that Tibbetts describes as a ...

By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor ZEALnyc, May 8, 2018
Ornette Coleman, who dared to step to the edge of jazz boundaries and break the rules in search of improvisational freedom with his free jazz, was once considered a renegade and outsider. In testament to his alto saxophone and composer genius, in ...

By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor ZEALnyc, May 4, 2018
At my first attempt to contact piano master Fred Hersch, an email message popped up on my screen: “I am on silent retreat…I will have no access to any electronic devices.” However, during his retreat at Insight Meditation Society in ...

By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor ZEALnyc, April 30, 2018
When virtuoso tabla master Zakir Hussain served as one of SFJAZZ’s artistic directors in 2015-2016, he told an audience gathered to hear his reflections on the power of artistic expression: “Music is a force, it’s something that is a ...

By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor ZEALnyc, April 16, 2018
Every year, New York’s nonprofit the Jazz Foundation of America—whose motto is “Saving jazz and blues…one musician at a time”—helps to be a key factor for helping musicians who have faced natural disasters and other downtowns due ...

By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor ZEALnyc, April 11, 2018
In 2017, then-44-year-old clarinetist/saxophonist Mike McGinnis experienced his longtime fantasy of forming a trio with two of his elder-jazz heroes, pianist Art Lande and electric bassist Steve Swallow. It became a striking reality of ...

By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor ZEALnyc, April 5, 2018
Deemed as one of the greatest guitarists of all time thanks in part to his high-profile gig with rock band Wilco since 2004, Nels Cline can be an experimental monster as an intrepid slayer of strings. While he can burst with blasts and surge ...

By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor ZEALnyc, March 15, 2018
When BAM and the World Music Institute present legendary pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, the show will focus on his return to the Jazz Epistles, the bebopping group he co-founded and co-led in the apartheid-strangled South Africa that recorded its ...

By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor ZEALnyc, March 9, 2018
To illustrate how topsy-turvy the modern music world is today, consider 31-year-old rising-star vocalist Camille Bertault, who will perform for two nights at Jazz Standard, March 20-21. Instead of being discovered by a savvy record company ...

By Jil Picariello, Theater Editor, February 12, 2018
In case we’ve never met, there’s something you should know about me: I’m a little loony on the subject of Aaron Tveit.
It all started a decade ago when I snagged a $10 preview ticket to an off-Broadway show I knew nothing about. For ten ...

By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor ZEALnyc, February 9, 2018
Jazz at Lincoln Center’s ideological goals could not be more evident from merely perusing the upcoming event listings for the most intimate space in its arsenal, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola. The nightspot runs on a daily basis with ...

By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor ZEALnyc, February 9, 2018
After the dust had settled from the 2000 demolishing of the once-touted, then-mocked New York Coliseum at Columbus Circle, the majestic twin-towered Time Warner Center rose from the ashes a few years later and revitalized the neighborhood as ...

By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor ZEALnyc, February 5, 2018
When the Cuban-born, New York-based David Virelles took the stage at the Jazz Standard on January 30, he exuded a confident air of upending the typical piano-led ensemble. He didn’t pose with long runs of bombast or stretch out with ...

By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor ZEALnyc, January 8, 2018
As a result of his successful summer jazz festival founded in 1973 in the Umbria region of Italy, Carlo Pagnotta, the artistic director of the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, started a new festival twenty-five years ago in the historic ...

By Dan Ouellette, Senior Editor ZEALnyc, January 5, 2018
What started 13 years ago as an inspired goal of giving voice to the plethora of relatively unknown but immensely talented jazz musicians toiling in the multitude of the New York’s tiny and obscure clubs, the NYC Winter Jazzfest (January ...

ZEALnyc, December 19, 2017
Legendary guitarist Mike Stern will be joined by Randy Brecker (trumpet), Tom Kennedy (bass guitar) and Dennis Chambers (drums) for the week leading up to Christmas, and we’re sure this residency will make the season bright. Beginning on Tuesday, December 19 through ...

By Christopher Johnson, Contributing Writer, December 15, 2017
For all that it’s alleged to be Central Command for the War on Christmas, New York City sure goes ape for the holidays. In the month of December alone, New York probably fields more performances of Messiah than South Dakota has ...